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Man who claims racial profiling, wrongful arrest out on bail

Author of the article:

Alex MacPherson • Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Publishing date:

August 16, 2018 • 2 minute read

Cory Charles, a Saskatoon man arrested by city police in July 2018, said he is a victim of racial profiling, and was arrested by police simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time./ SASwp

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A Saskatoon man who says he was racially profiled, arrested and charged with a crime he didn’t commit is out on bail after what was expected to be a hotly contested bail hearing fizzled into an agreement for his release.

That suggests the evidence against Cory Charles — who was not expected to be released given his history of breaching conditions — is weak, his lawyer said outside Saskatoon provincial court after the hearing on Thursday.

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“Maybe, at the end of the day, they found the evidence was lacking … Cory was just walking around in the area, he nodded to the co-accused and said, ‘I know that guy,’ and was immediately detained,” Carl Swenson said.

Senior Crown prosecutor Sandeep Bains said in an email that he was satisfied Charles’s risk to the public could be managed by the strict conditions, which include a curfew and no-contact orders.

Charles, who sometimes uses the last name Cardinal, is charged with aggravated assault in connection with what has been described as an extremely violent stabbing at the intersection of Avenue H and 33rd Street West around 7 a.m. on July 30.

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The incident left 37-year-old Ruben Martens with serious injuries.

Charles was arrested later that morning near Manchester Brew Pub on the corner of Idylwyld Drive and 33rd Street. Earlier this week, he took the unusual step of issuing a statement to media, through Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan.

“The police officer pulled me in because I was Aboriginal and they thought I matched a description … I am being dragged through judicial proceedings for a crime I have nothing to do with. I was racially profiled by (Saskatoon police),” the statement read.

Saskatoon police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards said this week the force takes the allegations seriously, and encouraged Charles to file a complaint through the provincial Public Complaints Commission or the FSIN.

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Swenson, a private lawyer who represented Charles on behalf of Legal Aid Saskatchewan, said his client is interested in filing a complaint but not precisely sure how to do it, as he has never before had reason to complain.

The charges facing Charles and his co-accused, Phillip Junior McCallum, are likely to go to trial because Crown prosecutors are typically unwilling to drop serious charges such as aggravated assault, Swenson said.

“It’s arbitrary detainment. It needs to be addressed by the court. And I’m sure after the (Charter evidence exclusion clause) argument all evidence is going to be excluded,” he said.

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“Cory was arbitrarily detained. Any kind of observations that were made at that point should not survive a (Charter) analysis. All of the evidence past that point should be excluded.”

Swenson told the StarPhoenix this week that the evidence includes an alleged bloodstain on Charles’s shirt. He confirmed Thursday that the Crown has not yet provided any disclosure on that evidence

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